New numerical solver for flows at various Mach numbers

Many problems in stellar astrophysics feature flows at low Mach numbers. Conventional compressible hydrodynamics schemes frequently used in the field have been developed for the transonic regime and exhibit excessive numerical dissipation for these flows. While schemes were proposed that solve hydrodynamics strictly in the low Mach regime and thus restrict their applicability, we aim at developing a scheme that correctly operates in a wide range of Mach numbers. Based on an analysis of the asymptotic behavior of the Euler equations in the low Mach limit we propose a novel scheme that is able to maintain a low Mach number flow setup while retaining all effects of compressibility. This is achieved by a suitable modification of the well-known Roe solver. Numerical tests demonstrate the capability of this new scheme to reproduce slow flow structures even in moderate numerical resolution. Our scheme provides a promising approach to a consistent multidimensional hydrodynamical treatment of astrophysical low Mach number problems such as convection, instabilities, and mixing in stellar evolution.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication by A&

Numerical analysis of conservative unstructured discretisations for low Mach flows

This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/licensing-and-open-access/open-access/self-archiving.htmlUnstructured meshes allow easily representing complex geometries and to refine in regions of interest without adding control volumes in unnecessary regions. However, numerical schemes used on unstructured grids have to be properly defined in order to minimise numerical errors. An assessment of a low-Mach algorithm for laminar and turbulent flows on unstructured meshes using collocated and staggered formulations is presented. For staggered formulations using cell centred velocity reconstructions the standard first-order method is shown to be inaccurate in low Mach flows on unstructured grids. A recently proposed least squares procedure for incompressible flows is extended to the low Mach regime and shown to significantly improve the behaviour of the algorithm. Regarding collocated discretisations, the odd-even pressure decoupling is handled through a kinetic energy conserving flux interpolation scheme. This approach is shown to efficiently handle variable-density flows. Besides, different face interpolations schemes for unstructured meshes are analysed. A kinetic energy preserving scheme is applied to the momentum equations, namely the Symmetry-Preserving (SP) scheme. Furthermore, a new approach to define the far-neighbouring nodes of the QUICK scheme is presented and analysed. The method is suitable for both structured and unstructured grids, either uniform or not. The proposed algorithm and the spatial schemes are assessed against a function reconstruction, a differentially heated cavity and a turbulent self-igniting diffusion flame. It is shown that the proposed algorithm accurately represents unsteady variable-density flows. Furthermore, the QUICK schemes shows close to second order behaviour on unstructured meshes and the SP is reliably used in all computations.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Unified Gas-kinetic Wave-Particle Methods III: Multiscale Photon Transport

In this paper, we extend the unified gas-kinetic wave-particle (UGKWP) method to the multiscale photon transport. In this method, the photon free streaming and scattering processes are treated in an un-splitting way. The duality descriptions, namely the simulation particle and distribution function, are utilized to describe the photon. By accurately recovering the governing equations of the unified gas-kinetic scheme (UGKS), the UGKWP preserves the multiscale dynamics of photon transport from optically thin to optically thick regime. In the optically thin regime, the UGKWP becomes a Monte Carlo type particle tracking method, while in the optically thick regime, the UGKWP becomes a diffusion equation solver. The local photon dynamics of the UGKWP, as well as the proportion of wave-described and particle-described photons are automatically adapted according to the numerical resolution and transport regime. Compared to the $S_n$ -type UGKS, the UGKWP requires less memory cost and does not suffer ray effect. Compared to the implicit Monte Carlo (IMC) method, the statistical noise of UGKWP is greatly reduced and computational efficiency is significantly improved in the optically thick regime. Several numerical examples covering all transport regimes from the optically thin to optically thick are computed to validate the accuracy and efficiency of the UGKWP method. In comparison to the $S_n$ -type UGKS and IMC method, the UGKWP method may have several-order-of-magnitude reduction in computational cost and memory requirement in solving some multsicale transport problems.Comment: 27 pages, 15 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1810.0598